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Interview w/ Outline In Color

By: Song
River(Vents Magazine)We
recently caught up with three of the band members from Outline In
Color as they are currently on the US AGAINST THE WORLD TOUR
(Through April 10th) with Headliner:
SLAVES, Myka Relocate, Capture the Crown and Conquer Divide. Tired,
hot and ready to go for an evening of Post Hardcore ROCK we were
joined by K. C. Simonsen, Peyton Carvell and Nick Taylor to chat a
bit about being out on the road, their latest album- Struggle, the
connections they like to make with their fans, and getting their
passports ready...

SONG
RIVER:
Where does is home for everyone?

PEYTON
CARVELL:
The band originates from Tulsa, Oklahoma. Both K.C. and Nick
originate from Portland, Oregon and I come from Kansas City,
Missouri. Then, even though they’re not currently here with us
talking, Trevor and See Jay are both from Tulsa and Michael is from
Denver, Colorado.

SR:
Where do you all meet up then to practice, create, tour?

NICK
TAYLOR:
Wherever we’re all at, which is usually Denver or Tulsa. Most of
the time it’s Denver where we all can converge.

PC:
Yeah, Denver is where we can figure out our sets and then play at our
own homes. It’s about a week before tour, or even a day before tour
sometimes, we’ll get together again to run through everything and
get it all running again.

SR:
It’s crazy how you do it now. Back in the day, you would haveto
meet up. There was no way everyone could live completely separate and
still be able to do what you guys are doing. Does that ever blow your
minds?

NT:
Yeah, definitely. We don’t have to be together to write music now
and it really is insane.

K.C.
SIMONSEN:
Occasionally I do think that, “Man, this is gonna be bad when we
meet up,” just because we would be practicing so much on our own
and I would especially think that since we just did a new album. So
it was a lot of “Okay, let’s just do this and see how it goes.”
Luckily, we had some good friends in a band called Victory
Heights
in Colorado, where we got to meet up to play and run through the set.
It was definitely pretty hectic, but in the end it always ends up
working out really well.

SR:
Again,
it’s just so crazy how much has changed. Just look at the past ten
years. How we put togetheran
album, how we all work together… Do you guys find that because you
don’t spend so much time together that when you’re on the road,
you’re more touchy and personal about personal space?

NT:
I don’t. [laughed]

PC:
[laughed] That is actually the best part about not living together.
We all do love each other to death, but eventually when you are stuck
in a van with somebody for at least a month, there is going to be
that point of “Hey, get out of my face.” But it always ends up
pretty perfect. At the end of every tour, we still love each other.
But at the same time, we are ready to back to our own places and have
our own space for a bit for a month or two, y’know? Then by the
time we do get back home, we’re already ready to get back together
and get back on tour.

SR:
Do you guys get the “tour blues?”

NT:
Oh, yeah. I do every time.

KS:
It takes about a week of being home then I’m ready to leave again.

PC:
Yup, that’s usually how it goes.

SR:
You definitely have to have that travel bug in you in order to do all
of this, don’t you?

PC,
KS,
NT:
Oh, for sure.

SR:
Now, you guys have pretty much toured all the states, what about
Europe?

NT:
Not yet, but we were just asked to get our passports all in check…

PC:
Yup! So, fingers crossed, it should be happening very soon!

SR:
That is sweet!

NT:
It really is and it’s definitely been a built up of excitement as
we just finally locked in our U.K. booking agent too.

KS:
Right now, we’re just getting everything set up. Our manager had to
go get our passports scanned; like Nick said, we’ve been notified
that we have our U.K. booking agent… Now, we’re just waiting for
it all to fit together and get on those planes.

SR:
Then comes Australia next?

PC,
KS,
NT:
That would be amazing!

NT:
Japan would be pretty sweet too.

PC:
Yeah, it would! We actually do have a huge following in Japan because
the Go
With Me Records
sell us and promote us a lot over there. So, according to them and
even our U.S. manager, we just have this massive following there.
Huge shout out to them.

KS:
Whenever they’re ready for us, we’ll be ready for them!

SR:
As I looked at your discography, I couldn’t help but wonder if
there is a thread going on here. What caught my eye is with your
latest album, Struggle,
you guys are having the whole “#Struggle” thing going on. Did you
guys do the same thing with your album Masksas
well where you have a connection with the album and the interaction
with the fans?

KS:
Yeah, I guess we did sorta. With “Jury of Wolves,” we had done
the whole “wolfpack” label so it was an identity for the fans to
use as a part of the band. I don’t think we really did so much with
Masks.
But it is definitely something we try to do to keep that interaction
with the fans.

SR:
Can we touch a little on how Struggleis
so different to your past music?

PC:
For us, we feel like a lot of people in this music scene don’t
really touch on actual struggles people go through. We feel that a
lot of the time the artists will just say something like, “We’re
all the same!” Then just leave it at that. So, with Struggle,
we wanted to reinforce with our fans that fact. They’re no
different than us, we’re no different from them. We have our
struggles too that we’re learning to overcome so we really are in
this all together.

As
well I'd say the lyrics are more raw, the sound is more raw,
therefore the perfect album name was Struggle.

SR:
What would you like to see the outcome be of Struggle?

KS:
Sell a million records in the first month. [laughed]

PC:
Make a million dollars. [laughed]

KS:
Make a million dollars with a million records sold, plus a swimming
pool.

NT:
A dog swimming pool! It could even be attached to the van for shows.

KS:
In seriousness though, it would be nice if Strugglewas
a part of the final conclusion for our struggles.

SR:
Peyton and Nick you are the two most recent members of the band. How
did everybody come together to form Outline In Color exactly, K.C.?

KS:
They found me on YouTube actually. I did a cover of “Besitos” by
Pierce
The Veil.

PC:
I’ve seen it and it’s pretty killer actually.

SR:
Where do you come in Nick?

NT:
Well, my old band Eleanora
was based in Oregon and K.C. had been living down there at the time.
So, we connected as friends first and then I was making trips between
cities to write with the band. Eventually, I picked up some of their
music, fell in love with it, then I went and bought hard copies of
their EP and first album. Those would be the only two CDs that I
would listen to in my car for the longest time. And one day, they
asked me if I knew their setlist and I said, “Well yeah. I’ve
been listening to nothing else but you guys for like a year straight
and you’re all I’ve been practicing to.”

SR:
And Peyton?

PC:
Much like Nick, I was actually a huge fan of these guys. I listened
to the album Masks.
A lot. But See Jay, the other guitarist, recorded this band I was in
a long time ago and I had become great friends with him. Then last
year, he messaged me if I would like to be in it. So, I was in pretty
much the same shoes as Nick.

SR:
So it sounds like everybody just connected together eventually
through listening to each other’s music, correct?

PC,
KS,
NT:
Yup.

SR:
Do you guys have side projects outside of Outline
In Color
as well?

PC:
Oh, jeez. Nick’s probably the one with the most.

NT:
Skaggs, aka Michael our bassist, and I are in a band with some
members of Misfortune
called Northern
Lights.
We’re about to do some stuff this summer with that and have some
things come out in the fall. Then I also sing in a band called TrophyLives
up in Portland, Oregon and it’s more like an “emo band” if you
will. K.C. and I also do a lot of songwriting.

SR:
Is the songwriting you do together for Outline
In Color
or something completely different perhaps?

NT:
We actually haven’t really written a song together for Outline.
We’ve been in the same room writing on our laptops though.
[chuckled]

SR:
Do you any side projects, Peyton?

PC:
Yeah, I kinda do the same thing K.C. and Nick do when I’m at home.
I have a really good friend back at home from an old band we used to
be in together and I’ll go over to his house a lot and just write.
So, I guess it’s technically not a lot of side projects for me. I
just kinda do whatever I’m feeling that day.

SR:
Life on the road, driving in a van and hauling a trailer I am sure is
great but do you ever find ways to take a night off and actually
sleep in a bed, shower, etc. without having to pay high hotel prices?

NT:
Yes, actually we do and I would really like to say something about
the people we stay with while out on tour. We truly do have an
extended family all around the U.S. We have people we can catch up
with, talk to, see if they just want to hang out for a bit… We are
truly lucky and grateful for those people.

There’s
also this Christian nonprofit organization called Ryfo
which we’ve stayed with before. They are super amazing, always take
such good care of us and are non-judgmental. They give out room and
board, they cook us meals, I mean, they’re just some of the nicest
people we’ve come into contact while out on the road.

PC:
It’s just families who love to do it. The organization goes and
finds tours that are happening and being announced and will then
pitch it to the organization's families who are willing to take in a
band. It is absolutely incredible.

NT:
It truly is. It’s so cool to just sit down with them and just talk.
It’s really fun and interesting to just sit and exchange stories
with them as they’ve had previous bands stay with them. Also, a lot
of time, we find that the family members were previously in the music
scene themselves, so those exchange of stories are always amazing as
well. Overall, we couldn’t thank them enough for all that they have
done and continue to do.

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